Skip to main content

School of Food and Nutritional Sciences PhD Researchers Win UCC Student Entrepreneur of the Year

26 May 2026
(L-R): Saba Loftus, UCC Advancement Office and Cork University Foundation; Kevin Dalton, UCC Innovation; Eamon Curtin, IGNITE; Declan Fox, AxisBIC; Sarah Phelan, AxisBIC; Katie Flynn, Local Enterprise Office South Cork; Honor Moore, Cork University Foundation; and CraveShift founders Tiziana Racca and Aritra Sinha, winners of the UCC Student Entrepreneur Competition 2026 Postgraduate Category.

The School of Food and Nutritional Sciences is delighted to announce that PhD researchers Tiziana Racca and Aritra Sinha have been named postgraduate winners of UCC’s Student Entrepreneur of the Year Competition 2026.

The School of Food and Nutritional Sciences is delighted to announce that PhD researchers Tiziana Racca and Aritra Sinha have been named postgraduate winners of UCC’s Student Entrepreneur of the Year Competition 2026.

The university-wide competition, held on Thursday, 21 May 2026, brings together the best ideas coming from a wide range of curricular and extra-curricular programmes available at University College Cork. Finalists represented schools and disciplines from across the university, sharing a total prize fund of €20,000 provided by a philanthropic donation raised through the Cork University Foundation.

Postgraduate Winners: CraveShift

The postgraduate category was awarded to CraveShift, founded by Tiziana Racca and Aritra Sinha, PhD researchers here at the School of Food and Nutritional Sciences.

CraveShift is a mobile app designed to help people resist junk food cravings, avoid overeating and reduce ultra-processed food dependence without dieting, calorie counting or restrictive approaches. Using food science, behavioural psychology and AI-assisted food recognition, the app analyses why cravings happen and provides practical food-first suggestions to help users build healthier habits. The app launched earlier this year and has already gained strong early traction across iOS and Android platforms.

Supporting Innovation at UCC

The UCC Student Entrepreneur of the Year Competition forms part of UCC’s wider student entrepreneurship ecosystem and complements a range of supports available through IGNITE, including workshops, hackathons, mentoring, advice clinics and start-up programmes.

The School extends its warmest congratulations to Tiziana and Aritra on this fantastic achievement.

School of Food and Nutritional Sciences

Contact us

School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Room 240 Food Science Building, University College, Cork

Connect with us

Top